Coldsnap: Storm's Call

Chapter 9: Too Hot To Handle

We last read Chapter 8, in which Keena and Coldsnap responded to the scene of the Bombing of the Louvre Museum. Though they were too late to intercept the bombs or prevent them from going off, they were still able to safely evacuate everyone else, discover the source of the bombs, and put out the fires before emergency responders officially arrived, afterwards leaving the museum entirely to regroup with Firebird. Meanwhile, Typhoon and her three Storm Sect operatives returned to Skycrest after a successful mission and briefed Galeforce, to which he commended them and allowed them to take a short break before venting his frustrations to The Ascendant himself. This time, we join Firebird as she attempts to talk to Forgemaster Emberson for information on the light-blue cloth, only to be met with some rather disgusting advances.....

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At the Stonemount Gorge, Geode was standing in front of the same pair of ramps as he had been before, with a second ramp on the other end of the room ready to catch him. However, the difference this time was that there were five hoops placed at different elevations between the two ramps—to account for the "arc" when Geode would ramp off the first hill—and all five hoops were actively on fire, due to the help of a completely random fire mage who had visited the Gorge and volunteered to help Sledge train his son.

That mage then moved to the side, standing alongside the Boulder Brothers as Sledge first demonstrated the exercise to Geode as an example.

"Lesson #3.....flaming hoops. You soar through and you no get burn," Sledge warned. "You get burn, stop, drop, and roll. Then you try again."

Geode gulped. "I, uhh.....I don't know....."

"You want help Coldsnap and friends? You pass exercise. Two more after; must do well on those, too. You pass #2 first try. #1, too. Complete faith you pass this as well."

His son rolled his eyes, curled up into a ball, and initially stayed in place to gather up speed and adjust his aim. Once he was ready, he rocketed off the ramp.

......And he just barely didn't clear the jump through the first hoop, resulting in him knocking over all five, starting a small fire, and incidentally lighting himself ablaze as well.

The poor earth mage screamed in fear as he began frantically running back and forth across the chamber in a panic, while Sledge and the Boulder Brothers smothered the hoop fire by covering it with dirt.

"Dirt remove oxygen from fire. Fire need oxygen to keep going. No oxygen equal no fire," Sledge taught casually, as his son continued to literally burn alive some distance behind him and his guards. The Earth Sect Leader then turned his head around to look at Geode. "Geode all good? Geode going to be okay?"

"Umm.....no! Help me!"

One of Sledge's guards smirked. "Just stop, drop, and roll, my dude."

Geode stopped and did as he was told, and the flames went out in seconds. "Phew! Thanks! .....Don't know why Dad couldn't have told me that, but okay."

"I did tell," Sledge pointed out. "Must learn to do things on own; will be necessary someday. Must also not forget things few seconds after statement."

"Well, sorry. I was too busy dying to recall that."

"We try again. This attempt be better than last, for sure."

The Boulder Brothers and the random fire mage all worked together to prop the flaming hoops back to their upright positions, then backed away once more, at which point Sledge joined them at their side.